Gaiteiro de Soutelo Festival

Birthplace of the "bagpiper" teacher

Bands and traditional dance groups congregate at this great festival in Forcarei.

The Festa do Gaiteiro de Soutelo de Montes pays tribute to one of the most illustrious bagpipe players, Avelino Cachafeiro, who recorded the famous Muiñeira de Chantada. The event brings together numerous traditional Galician music bands that perform music with traditional dances.

The parish of Soutelo de Montes still remembers today Avelino Cachafeiro, proclaimed in 1924 as the best bagpiper in Galicia.

This town in the municipality of Forcarei has honoured its famous musician since 1979 with the Festa do Gaiteiro, declared of Galician Tourist Interest in 2010. This festival brings together hundreds of musicians every year and attracts thousands of people from all over the region and from neighbouring Portugal.

Avelino recorded in 1928 a transcendental piece in the traditional repertoire, the Muiñeira de Chantada, and took it around the world with his brothers, also musicians. The origin of the festival dates back to the meetings he organised with the students of the bagpipe group of the region of Tabeirós-Terra de Montes. Nowadays, the celebration brings together hundreds of musicians from all over Galicia and from some foreign countries in the Plaza de Os Gaiteiros. The bagpipes, drums and tambourines flood the town with music and traditional dances, a sensory spectacle for the ear and the eye.

Proclamation and floral offering

The festival begins with a proclamation and wreath offering to honour the memory of Avelino Cachafeiro, the prodigious self-taught musician who learned to play his grandfather's instruments and who, together with his brothers, achieved such success that he played in South America and at the Antwerp Olympics. The figure of pregonera or pregonero is of great importance, as it is selected taking into account those people who value and contribute to decorate the memory of who was the best bagpiper in Galicia.

The vermouth session and the popular lunch in the carballeira of the Venezuela Park are some of the festive events. Afterwards, there is a multitudinous popularroada that brings together musicians and amateurs. The festival concludes with a performance of traditional music and dance. Thus, the Festa do Gaiteiro, becomes an essential date in Soutelo de Montes to extol our culture and tradition.